“Every country is different when it comes to international background screening,” explains Lester Rosen, founder and President of ESR. “Techniques, information, and availability of public records usually taken for granted here in the United States are often times not available abroad. Each foreign country has its own laws, customs, and procedures for background screening.”

Increasingly, due to the mobility of workers across international borders in a global economy, American employers find they need to conduct international background screening on workers who are from – or have spent time in – foreign countries. Recent U.S. government statistics show why international background screening is so necessary:

U.S. Legal Permanent Residents (LPRs): The report ‘U.S. Legal Permanent Residents’ from the Office of Immigration Statistics (OIS) showed 1,130,818 persons became Legal Permanent Residents (LPRs) of the U.S. in 2009.

“While international background screening is challenging, the mere fact that information is more difficult to obtain from outside of the U.S. does not relieve employers from their due diligence obligation associated with hiring,” adds Rosen, an Attorney and author of ‘The Safe Hiring Manual,’ the first comprehensive guide for employment screening.

To help U.S. employers in their efforts to conduct international background screening, the white paper offers tips on performing criminal searches, education verifications, and employment and reference checks abroad while providing in-depth focus on screening practices in several countries such as the United Kingdom (U.K.), Canada, and Japan.

The white paper also offers employers recommendations for International Background Screening programs. “Although international background screening can be challenging, it is not impossible,” says Rosen.